From American Journal of the Medical Sciences




Obesity Puts Black Teens At Greater Risk For Diabetes Than White Teens


COLUMBUS, OH -- Feb. 25, 1999 -- A new study suggests that obese black
teenagers have a greater risk of developing diabetes as adults than do
their white counterparts.

Researchers found significantly higher levels of three indicators for the
onset of type II diabetes in obese black adolescents, compared to those of
obese white adolescents.

"There are racial and ethnic differences in glucose metabolism that put
obese black adolescents at a greater risk for type II diabetes," said Dara
Schuster, assistant professor of internal medicine at Ohio State. "Our
results show a need for early aggressive weight management in black teens."

A person with type II diabetes -- sometimes called adult-onset diabetes --
doesn't produce enough insulin to metabolise blood sugar, or glucose. This
causes blood sugar to build up in the blood stream, which can cause
problems like hyperglycemia. According to the American Diabetes
Association, a person can inherit a tendency to develop type II diabetes,
but it usually takes another factor, like obesity, to bring on the disease.
About 15 million Americans have this form of diabetes.

The study appears in a recent issue of the American Journal of the Medical
Sciences.

Schuster and her colleagues separated the non-diabetic teenagers into four
groups -- seven obese black teens; nine obese white teens; 15 lean black
teens; and 29 lean white teens. The researchers tested each group on two
separate days for glucose tolerance, insulin resistance and C-peptide
levels -- all indicators of adult-onset diabetes.

On the first day, each teenager was given glucose orally. At least seven
days later, the subjects underwent an intravenous glucose tolerance test.
Giving them glucose intravenously allowed for a more accurate reading of
insulin resistance and glucose metabolism, Schuster said.

After each test, the researchers drew blood samples at timed intervals to
test for glucose tolerance, insulin metabolism and C-peptide levels. They
compared the results of each group and found that the obese black
adolescents fared far worse in glucose tolerance and insulin metabolism
compared to the other three groups, even the obese white teenagers.

"The glucose, insulin and C-peptide levels in the lean groups looked
exactly the same after each test," Schuster said. "While the obese white
teens had higher insulin, sugar and C-peptide levels, they weren't much
different from the lean groups. Their levels weren't nearly as abnormal as
what we saw in the obese black children."

Within the first five minutes of receiving glucose intravenously, insulin
and C-peptide levels were at least twice as high in the obese black group
than they were in the obese white group.

"Obesity in the black children had a much more detrimental effect on
glucose metabolism than it did in the white children," Schuster said.

 It is my opinion that this is true because Black Americans <as American
Indians> are that much closer in in history to a hunter /gather way of life
and eating pattern, and are thus suseptable to chronic diet related disease at
a younger age than the eastern med/ europeans .       Comments?

Dorothy